JP5924720B2 - Method and apparatus for associating census data with panel data - Google Patents

Description

Cross-reference of related applications

  [0001] This patent claims priority to US Patent Application Publication No. 14 / 132,626, filed December 18, 2013, entitled "METHODS AND APPARATUS TO CORELATE CENSURE MEASUREMENT DATA WITH PANEL DATA". US Patent Provisional Application No. 61 / 815,544, filed April 24, 2013, entitled "METHOD FOR CORRELATING CENSUS MEASUREMENT DATA IN PANEL SAMPLES". US Patent Application Publication No. 14 / 132,626 and US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 815,544 are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

  [0002] The present disclosure relates generally to audience measurement, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for associating census measurement data with panel data.

  [0003] Media (eg, any type of content and / or advertisements such as broadcast television and / or broadcast radio, stored audio and / or video played from a memory such as a digital video recorder or digital video disc, Audience measurements of web pages, audio and / or video (eg, streamed) presented via the Internet, video games, etc. can be performed with media identification data (eg, signature (s), fingerprint (s)) Collecting code (s), tuned channel identification information, exposure time information, etc.) and number of people data (eg, user identifier (s), demographic data associated with viewing member (s), etc.) Often need. The media identification data and the number of people data are combined, for example, to generate media exposure data indicating the number (s) and / or type (s) of people who were shown the particular part (s) of the media. be able to.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of an example system configured in accordance with the teachings of this disclosure to relate census measurement data to panel data. FIG. 4 is an exemplary message path illustrating the measurement of tagged media. FIG. 5 is an exemplary message path illustrating associating census measurement data with panel data. FIG. 3 is a diagram of an exemplary environment configured in accordance with the teachings of this disclosure to relate census measurement data to panel data. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the audience measurement entity server of FIG. 1 that can facilitate association of census measurement data with panel data. FIG. 5 is an example data table storing data representing tagged media impressions that can be collected by the example audience measurement entity server of FIGS. 5 is an exemplary data table that can be stored by the audience measurement entity server of FIGS. 5 is an exemplary data table that stores data representing tagged media impressions associated with panel samples that can be collected by the exemplary audience measurement entity server of FIGS. FIG. 6 is a flowchart representation of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to initiate recording of tagged impressions. FIG. 6 is a flowchart representation of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to determine whether to associate a tagged media impression with a registered panelist. FIG. 4 is an exemplary tag including pseudo code that can be executed to generate a beacon in response to accessing media tagged with a client device. FIG. 6 is a flowchart representation of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to generate a beacon at a client device. FIG. 4 is a flowchart representation of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to generate a beacon in response to accessing tagged media at a client device. An example capable of executing the example machine readable instructions of FIGS. 8, 9, 11 and / or 12 to implement the example audience measurement entity server of FIGS. 1-4. 1 is a block diagram of a typical processing platform.

  [0018] The example methods, systems, and devices disclosed herein can be used to measure viewing exposure and / or interaction with online media accessed by a user. For example, the techniques disclosed herein allow census measurement data to be related within a panel sample.

  [0019] Monitoring impressions of online media (eg, website content such as advertisements, streaming programs, audio, video text, etc.) is useful for generating impression statistics data for online media. As used herein, an impression is defined as an event where a home or individual can be shown corresponding media (eg, content and / or advertisements). Thus, an impression represents a home or individual who has been shown media (eg, advertisements, content, groups of advertisements, and / or collections of content). For online media, the amount of impression or impression count is the total number of times media (eg, advertisements, advertising campaigns, streaming programs, etc.) has been accessed by the web population (eg, reduced by, for example, pop-up blockers, and / or, eg, local The number of times the media has been accessed, increased by fetching from the cache memory). A user device (eg, mobile device) is a uniform resource specified by a media provider (eg, content provider and / or advertising entity) via a browser that renders media or a non-browser-based application that presents media Request online media from a media provider (eg, one or more content providers and / or advertising entities) by sending a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to an Internet address defined by a locator (URL) . In order to enable monitoring of user access to Internet resources, in some examples, participating media providers (eg, website publishers, advertising providers, etc.) may have their own media sources (eg, hypertext). Insert or embed a tag in a markup language (HTML code). The tag can include Java, Java Script, and / or other executable instructions that can be accessed when the tag is executed on the requesting mobile device. Are recorded by the audience measurement entity.

  [0020] A method, apparatus, and system for tagging media in the manner described above is disclosed in US Pat. No. 6,108,637 by Blumenau, entitled “Content Display Monitor”, which The entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. The tag is embedded in the HTML that defines the web page and / or is referenced by a pointer in the web page's HTML so that the tag is whenever the web browser renders the corresponding media (eg, web page). Executed. Typically, the tag causes the browser to send a request (sometimes referred to herein as a beacon) to a data collection mechanism such as an audience measurement entity server associated with the audience measurement entity. In some examples, the beacon is an HTTP request (eg, HTML GET request, HTML POST request, etc.). Beacons allow monitoring of data reflecting information about media access to be tracked. To achieve this goal, the beacon carries identification information that is to be collected, edited, and / or analyzed by the audience measurement entity. The identification information includes a user agent string that identifies the user device for which the media is requested, a media identifier that identifies the media with which the tag is associated (eg, a website address), a host with which the requested media is associated (eg, A host identifier that identifies the web server (eg, a vendor identifier (VID)), a time stamp that identifies the date / time the media was requested, accessed, and / or received, a control command executed on the media (eg, a temporary Stop, play, stop, etc.) may be included.

  [0021] Tags, such as those described above, can facilitate the collection of data, such as a census. In other words, all (or almost all) browsers that access tagged media respond to the tag by sending a beacon (or communication) to the audience measurement entity, so that (such as All (or nearly all) access (even for cached media using tags) is known by the audience measurement entity. Moreover, this data collection does not require the use of a dedicated browser or dedicated measurement software at the user device. Rather, beacons are traditional commercials as any other request to search Internet media or transmit data (eg, as a request to obtain content or advertising material to be displayed as part of a web page). Browsers (e.g., Mozilla (R), Firefox (R), Microsoft (R) Internet Explorer (R), Google (R) Chrome (R) browser, etc.) Any such browser will participate in the audience measurement process without requiring modification. As a result, tagging allows the collection of data from panelists and similarly non-panelists. Accordingly, data collected via tagging techniques such as those described above are described herein as census data or census data. Although the examples disclosed herein are described with a browser-based interface used to present online media, the disclosed techniques can be used for service-specific applications (eg, client applications that stream media). It may also be used with non-browser-based applications that render media.

  [0022] However, linking demographic and / or other user information to census data is useful. For example, companies and / or individuals want to understand the scope and effectiveness of the media they produce (eg, content and / or advertisements). For example, media associated with multiple exposures and / or multiple appearances of an organization can be considered to more effectively affect user behavior. Since census-based data includes users who are not panelists, panelist identifiers are not collected and / or identified from such users. Some census-based systems collect impression data at the server level. Collecting information at the server level allows an accurate measurement of the information serviced by the monitored server, but distinguishing between media impressions from panelists and non-panelists, or cached media ( For example, exposure to content that is serviced once and subsequently accessed one or more times from local memory is not possible. The server can record the internet protocol (IP) address of the device that requested the information, but the IP address often changes (eg, dynamically assigned) and / or the request is the original It may come through a proxy server that hides the identity of the requesting device. Thus, the server log typically does not uniquely identify the requesting device and / or the user making the request.

  [0023] To address this issue, audience measurement entities (sometimes referred to herein as “audience entities”) have traditionally been based on the registered panel members and the impact range of online media and Measure the frequency. That is, the audience measurement entity registers people who agree to be monitored in the panel. In such panelist-based systems, demographic information is obtained from the user when the user subscribes to and / or registers with the panel, for example. Demographic information (eg, race, age or age range, gender, income, home address, education level, etc.) allows the user to complete a survey (eg, online survey) via, for example, a telephone interview or a face-to-face interview It can be obtained from the user. In some examples, demographic information can be obtained for a home. For example, demographic information for a panel home can indicate the age range of members in the panel home without identifying the number of members in each of the age ranges. Thus, the granularity of demographic information may depend on whether the demographic information is for panelists or for multiple individuals in a panel home. As used herein, the term “panelist” is a generic term for both panelists and panel households.

  [0024] Companies such as Nielsen Company (USA), LLC, utilize on-device instruments to enable mobile phones, tablets (eg, iPad®) and / or other computing devices (eg, PDAs, laptops) Monitor the use of top computers). On-device instruments (ODM) are typically implemented by software that collects subject data regarding the use of the device being monitored. For example, the ODM may display data indicating the media access behavior (eg, website name, date / time of access, clickstream data, and / or other media identification information (eg, web page content, Etc)) can be collected. This data is uploaded regularly or irregularly to a data collection mechanism such as a viewer measurement entity server. The data collected by the instrument is referred to herein as ODM data or panelist data. Since panelists provide their demographics as part of their registration, ODM data is advantageous in that it can be linked to demographic information, so behavior data collected by ODM is For example, it can be associated with the demographic information via a panelist identifier included in the ODM data sent to the audience measurement entity.

  [0025] Typically, entities such as Nielsen Company (USA), LLC, which monitor and / or report the use of online media (eg, content, advertisements, or other types of media) operate as neutral third parties. . That is, the audience measurement entity does not provide content and / or advertisements to end users. This non-participation with the media ensures the neutrality of the audience measurement entity, thus enhancing the credibility of the data collected by the audience measurement entity. In addition, it is important for audience measurement entities that panel members are not identified by other entities, such as content providers and / or advertising entities, to ensure that panel members remain fair in their media access. It is. That is, to protect and identify panelist anonymity to ensure that reports generated by audience measurement entities are not distorted by content providers and / or advertising entities that may bias panelists It would be advantageous to collect monitoring information in a manner that does not include identifiers that can be used to identify other panelists (eg, panelist telephone numbers, panelist social security numbers, panelist names, etc.).

  [0026] The example methods, systems, and apparatus disclosed herein can be used to collect monitoring information at the census level and then relate the census measurement data to the panel sample. The example disclosed herein facilitates collecting monitoring information at the census level by tracking monitoring information contained in beacons sent to audience measurement entity servers in response to media requests become.

  [0027] The exemplary methods, systems, and devices disclosed herein cause a location identifier to be included in a beacon transmitted to a viewer measurement entity server. The location identifier can then be used to associate corresponding monitoring information (eg, media impressions) with the panelist. The examples disclosed herein accomplish this by including device location information in a beacon that is associated with the geographic location where the media is requested by the user device.

  [0028] The example disclosed herein facilitates comparing the device location included in the monitoring information with a reference location associated with the panelist. The reference location corresponds to the geographical location of the panelist's home. For example, the reference position can be global positioning system (GPS) coordinates. In some examples, the reference location can be obtained when a user subscribes to and / or registers with the panel. For example, the reference position can be obtained by a technician who visits the panelist's home and installs a measuring instrument at the panelist's home. For example, a technician can use a positioning system (eg, a GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) enabled receiver) to obtain, for example, GPS coordinates for a panelist's home. In some examples, the measurement equipment includes a positioning system and / or receives and / or transmits location data from a nearby positioning system and / or transmits location data to a user device in the panelist's home. May include a wireless network interface. In some such examples, the measurement instrument can send location data to the audience measurement entity server periodically and / or irregularly. In addition, when the measurement device includes a positioning system, the audience measurement entity will determine when the measurement device is in a new location (eg, outside the panelist's home) based on changes in the position data received from the measurement device. It can be identified whether it has moved.

  [0029] When comparing the device position to the reference position, the example disclosed herein determines the distance between the device position and the reference position stored in the audience measurement entity. If the distance between locations is less than the threshold, the user is likely requesting media from within the panelist's home, and based on this conclusion, the example disclosed herein continues to be Associate survey data with panelist identifiers. The panelist identifier can then be used to associate demographic information with monitoring information. For example, the panelist's age can be used to determine the age range of viewers who may watch a television show. In the illustrated example, when the beacon is sent to the audience measurement entity server in response to rendering the tagged media, the beacon includes a location identifier (eg, device location) and an audience measurement. The impression item recorded at the business entity server includes a location identifier.

  [0030] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example environment 100 in which the examples disclosed herein may be implemented to relate census measurement data to panel data. The example environment 100 of FIG. 1 includes an audience measurement entity (AME) server 102, a media hosting server 104, and a client device 106. In some examples, the AME server 102 is implemented using multiple devices and / or the media hosting server 104 is implemented using multiple devices. For example, AME server 102 and / or media hosting server 104 may include a disk array or multiple workstations (eg, desktop computers, workstation servers, laptop computers, etc.) that communicate with each other. In the illustrated example, AME server 102 selectively communicates with media hosting server 104 and / or client device 106 via one or more wired and / or wireless networks represented by network 108. Exemplary networks 108 include, for example, one or more data buses, one or more local area networks (LANs), one or more wireless LANs, one or more cellular networks, the Internet, etc. It can be implemented using any suitable wired and / or wireless network (s). As used herein, the phrase “communicate” includes direct communication and / or indirect communication through one or more intermediate components, including variations thereof, and direct physical (eg, wired) ) Communication and / or constant communication is not required, but rather includes regular or irregular intervals, as well as selective communication in one event.

  [0031] In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the audience measurement entity operates and / or hosts an exemplary AME server 102. The AME in the illustrated example is an entity that monitors and / or reports access to tagged media. The AME server 102 in the illustrated example relates to tagged media (eg, media that has inserted or embedded executable instructions that cause media views (eg, impressions) to be recorded by, for example, the AME server 102). A server and / or database that collects and / or receives monitoring information. The AME in the illustrated example is a neutral entity that is not involved in media distribution.

  [0032] In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, a media provider operates and / or hosts a media hosting server 104 that responds to requests for media that may include tags. For example, a media provider can hire an AME to collect and / or monitor information related to media associated with the media provider. Such media providers may wish to use media tagged in the media campaign to determine the effectiveness of the media campaign. In some examples, the information returned in response to the request for media includes instructions (eg, tags) that inform the AME server 102 of access to the tagged media. In some examples, information returned in response to a request for media includes a tag and / or a reference to an executable monitoring instruction. For example, tags and / or executable monitoring instructions may be hosted on the AME server 102, which allows the AME to directly control the content of the tags and / or executable monitoring instructions. In some examples, tags and / or executable monitoring instructions are hosted at media hosting server 104. By including a reference to the tag and / or executable monitoring instructions in the media, the content of the tag (eg, executable monitoring instructions) can be changed at any time without modifying the media. For example, tag and / or executable monitoring instructions improve the efficiency of collecting information about tagged media by updating executable instructions hosted at AME server 102 and / or media hosting server 104. Can be updated. As indicated above, tags may reside entirely within the media, or may be distributed between the media and the AME server and / or hosting server. Thus, the tagged media may include executable monitoring instructions that serve as references to tags or monitoring instructions stored at an external location such as a server. In the latter case, the reference can be considered as a first tag or part of a tag and the external instruction can be considered as a second tag or part of a tag. In some examples, the media hosting server 104 is operated and / or hosted by a third party. In addition, for simplicity, only one media hosting server 104 is shown in FIG. 1, but there may be multiple media hosting servers.

  [0033] In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the client device 106 is a smartphone (eg, Apple® iPhone®, Motorola® Moto X®, Nexus5, Android ( Registered trademark) platform device). However, for example, tablets (eg, Apple® iPad®, Motorola® Xom®), laptop computers, desktop computers, cameras, Internet televisions, smart TVs, etc. Any other type of device can be used in addition or as an alternative. The client device 106 of FIG. 1 (sometimes referred to herein as a “user device” or “mobile device”) accesses (eg, requests, receives, renders) online media that is tagged and returned by the media hosting server 104. , And / or present). For example, a user can run a web browser on client device 106 to request streaming media from media hosting server 104 (eg, via an HTTP request). In response to accessing the tagged media, media impression information including device location information is sent to the AME server 102.

  [0034] As described above, a media provider may hire an AME to collect and / or monitor information related to media associated with the media provider. For example, a media provider may perform the performance of three separate media (eg, media A, B, and C) with each other and / or other media and / or three media (eg, media A, B). , And C) may be desired to compare with expected or desired performance (eg, impact range and / or frequency). In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the AME server 102 facilitates tagging of media A, B, and C so that the AME server 102 tracks when the media is requested, eg, by a client device 106. An example tag handler 110 is included to enable. In the illustrated example, the tag handler 110 of FIG. 1 provides the media hosting server 104 with tags and / or references to tags for insertion into the media. For example, tag handler 110 provides media hosting server 104 with exemplary tag A to include (eg, insert, embed, etc.) in media A, tag B to include in media B, and tag C to include in media C. Can do. As explained above, the tag can be a reference to a monitoring instruction, so that the reference, not the instruction, is embedded in the media. Alternatively, the tag may be an executable monitoring instruction and may be located directly within the media and / or at an external location accessible to the media.

  [0035] In the illustrated example, the tag handler 110 generates tags that are subsequently included in the media hosted by the media hosting server 104. Based on the media provider and / or AME preferences, the tag handler 110 generates tags that achieve the media provider and / or AME goals. Tag handler 110 generates tags that allow AME server 102 to collect and / or receive monitoring information related to tagged media (eg, media A, B, and C). In some examples, the generated tag is then stored in a data structure such as a lookup table and used by the tag handler 110 to facilitate media tagging.

  [0036] In some examples, tag handler 110 generates tags A, B, C and instructs media hosting server 104 to include tags A, B, C in corresponding media A, B, C. In another example, tag handler 110 generates tags A, B, and C, embeds tags A, B, and C in the corresponding media A, B, and C, and then adds the tagged media (eg, tag A Media A including media B, media B including tags B, and media C including tags C are supplied to the media hosting server 104. In some examples, tag handler 110 generates tags A, B, C and instructs media hosting server 104 to include references to tags A, B, C in the corresponding media A, B, C. For example, the media hosting server 104 may embed a tag A reference in the media A, a tag B reference in the media B, and a tag C reference in the media C. The tag reference (A, B, C) is then used to request the corresponding tag (A, B, C). For example, when media A containing a reference for tag A is accessed at client device 106, client device 106 may also send a request for tag A using the reference for tag A. In some such examples, tag handler 110 generates tags (eg, tags A, B, C) and tag references (eg, references to tags A, B, C) and corresponding media (eg, A tag reference (eg, a reference to tags A, B, C) is provided to media hosting server 104 for insertion into media A, B, C), while tag handler 110 provides tags (eg, tags A, B, B). , C). Thus, when the client device 106 accesses media that includes a tag reference, the client device 106 requests a corresponding tag from the tag handler 110 using the tag reference. In another example, tag handler 110 provides tags A, B, C and tag references (eg, references to tags A, B, C) to media hosting server 104. In some examples, tag handler 110 generates tags A, B, C and provides tags A, B, C to media hosting server 104 for inclusion in corresponding media A, B, C, and tags A, Instructs to generate references to B and C. For example, the media hosting server 104 hosts media to be tracked (eg, media A, B, C), tags A, B, C, generates references to tags A, B, C, and references A, B and C may be embedded in the corresponding media A, B, and C. In some examples, when the client device 106 accesses media that includes a tag reference, the client device 106 requests a corresponding tag from the media hosting server 104. Thus, for example, when a tag's executable instructions need to be updated (e.g., replaced with executable instructions that improve efficiency in collecting media monitoring information), the media can also be sent to tags included in the media. The references need not be modified. Rather, the tag handler 110 allows only the tags on the server side (eg, instructions referenced by tags included in the media) to be modified.

  [0037] FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary message path showing the measurement of tagged media. In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example client device 106 sends a media request 202 for media to the example media hosting server 104 via the browser 200. In some examples, media request 202 includes a user agent that identifies characteristics of browser 200 and / or client device 106, such as a browser identifier, a device identifier, and the like. The media hosting server 104 in the illustrated example includes media (eg, websites, images, videos, etc.) that, when requested by the browser 200, cause the media hosting server 104 to respond with media 204 that includes a tag 206. The tagged media 204 in the illustrated example, when executed by the browser 200, causes the browser 200 to send communications (or beacons) including monitoring information (eg, census data) to the AME server 102. Contains executable instructions, such as an applet (eg, tag 206). According to the teachings of Blumenau US Pat. No. 6,108,637, tag 206 may be included in the requested media. Accordingly, the browser 200 transmits an exemplary beacon 210 to the AME server 102. In some such examples, beacon 210 is a “dummy request” that is not actually intended to return data. Instead, the beacon 210 is used to carry monitoring information to the AME server 102. In some examples, the beacon 210 is implemented as an HTTP POST message, an HTTP GET message, or a similar message used in current and / or future HTTP protocols. In the illustrated example, the beacon 210 includes a location identifier 212 (eg, data specifying a device location corresponding to the geographical location where the media was accessed), a media identifier 214 (eg, data specifying the media 204), And a time stamp 216 (eg, data specifying when the media 204 was received) corresponding to the date and / or time when the media was accessed.

  [0038] In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the client device 106 includes a positioning system 208 that enables identification of the geographical location of the client device 106. The positioning system 208 in the illustrated example is implemented by a global positioning system (GPS). In some examples, the positioning system 208 may use a wide area augmentation system (WAAS) to accurately determine the position of the client device 106 between 3 feet and 5 feet. In some examples, the positioning system 208 determines a geographic location (eg, GPS coordinates) based on signals received from the satellite that represent the location of the satellite in relation to the location of the client device 106. However, in some other examples, the positioning system 208 determines the location based on the location of the cellular radio tower in relation to the location of the client device 106 (eg, using triangulation). However, any other past, present, and / or future method for determining the device location of client device 106 (eg, wired and / or cellular tower triangulation, Wi-Fi data, Bluetooth®, etc.) Or GPS data sent from another device using a wireless network interface, etc.) to be used by the client device 106 to provide location information of the client device 106 when accessing the requested media. Can do.

  [0039] The AME server 102 in the illustrated example records that a request (eg, beacon 210) has been received, and any data contained in the beacon 210 (eg, location identifier 212, media identifier 214, time Stamp 216, cookies, etc.) are also recorded. In some examples, the AME server 102 responds to the request with an acknowledgment message. In some examples, the acknowledgment message requests and / or sets a cookie in the client device 106 to allow, for example, identification of the next beacon from the same client device.

  [0040] FIG. 3 is a diagram of another exemplary message path showing the measurement of tagged media. In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, an exemplary measuring device 302 is installed at the panelist's home. The example measurement instrument 302 in the illustrated example includes an instrument positioning system 304 implemented by a global positioning system, such as a GPS WAAS enabled receiver. In the illustrated example, the instrument positioning system 304 is based on signals (eg, clock signals) received from three or more GPS satellites 306 that represent the location of the satellite in relation to the position of the instrument positioning system 304. A geographical position 308A of the measuring device 302 is determined. The exemplary metrology instrument 302 may periodically and / or irregularly provide the AME server 102 with geographical location data 308A, 308B obtained and / or derived by the instrument positioning system 304 from signals received from the GPS satellites 306. Can be sent to. In the example of FIG. 3, the geographic location data 308A, 308B is the same geographic location data at two different times. The geographical position data 308 </ b> A is geographical position data when supplied by the GPS satellite 306 to the instrument positioning system 304. The geographical position data 308 </ b> B is geographical position data when supplied to the AME server 102 by the measuring device 302. The example AME server 102 of the illustrated example of FIG. 1 stores the geographic location data 308B in the panelist log as reference location data 308B for the corresponding panelist.

  [0041] In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, media hosting server 104 responds to media requests by client devices 106, 107 with tagged media. In the illustrated example, the exemplary media hosting server 104 sends media including the tag 310 to the client device 106 and media including the tag 311 to the client device 107. As described above, tags 310, 311 are executable instructions (eg, applets) that allow media monitoring information to be sent to AME 102. In some examples, the tag is a link to such an executable instruction.

  [0042] More specifically, in response to presenting the requested media including tag 310, client device 106 executes an executable instruction (eg, tag 310), which is executed by the client device. 106 causes the beacon 312 to be sent to the AME server 102. In addition, execution of tag 310 causes client device 106 to identify the geographical location of client device 106. In the illustrated example, the positioning system 208 of the client device 106 allows the device location of the client device 106 to be identified. In the illustrated example, client device 106 obtains device location data 314 (eg, GPS coordinates) from positioning system 208 based on signals received from GPS satellites 306. The example client device 106 of FIG. 3 then transmits the device location data 314 as a location identifier in the beacon 312 to the AME server 102.

  In a similar manner, in response to presenting the requested media including tag 311, client device 107 executes tag 311, which sends client device 107 and beacon 313 to AME server 102. To send. In addition, execution of executable instructions 311 causes client device 107 to identify the geographical location of client device 107. In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, client device 107 does not include a positioning system, but can receive location information from neighboring devices. In the illustrated example, the metrology equipment 302 broadcasts geographic location information 315 that can be received by nearby devices. For example, the measurement device 302 of the illustrated example broadcasts geographical location information 315 via a Bluetooth (registered trademark) interface. In some such examples, if the client device 107 also includes a Bluetooth® interface, the client device 107 receives the geographic location information 315 from the measurement instrument 302 and in the beacon 313 The position information 315 is transmitted to the AME 102 as a position identifier.

  [0044] In some examples, a client device that sends a beacon to the AME server 102 may not include a positioning system and / or a geographic location receiving interface (eg, a Bluetooth interface); And / or an application requesting media (eg, browser 200) may not access the client device's positioning system. In some such examples, the client device sends a beacon to the AME server 102 without a location identifier. When processing a beacon without a location identifier, the AME server 102 marks the monitoring information contained in the beacon as census data.

  [0045] In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, in order to determine whether the monitoring information included in the beacon is related to the registered panelist, the AME server 102 has registered the device location included in the location identifier. Compare with the reference position associated with the panelist. For example, if the device position is within a threshold distance of the reference position, a panelist identifier corresponding to the reference position can be associated with monitoring information corresponding to the position identifier received with the beacon. Otherwise, the monitoring information is marked as census data.

  [0046] In some examples, the AME server 102 compares the device location to a reference region associated with a registered panelist. The associated reference area of the panelist corresponds to a geographical area around the reference position. In some examples, the reference region changes based on the panelist's home (or other location (eg, work, favorite hangout, etc.)) and known information about the corresponding reference location. In some examples, the reference location (eg, work, favorite hangout, etc.) can be a portable instrument carried by a registered panelist, and / or an on-device instrument (ODM) (eg, Nielsen Company (USA), LLC. Determined by collecting geographic locations from computing devices (eg, mobile phones, tablets, PDAs, laptop computers, etc.). In some examples, the size of the reference area depends on whether the panelist's home is an apartment, house, etc., and the location of the geographic area surrounding the reference position depends on the location of the instrumentation in the panelist's home . For example, if the measuring device 302 is known to be located against the outer wall of the panelist's home, the reference region 316 may be located around the reference position data 308B, resulting in the reference position data 308B. Is not near the center of the reference region 316 but near the edge of the reference region 316. Further, although the reference region 316 is represented as an ellipse in the illustrated example, the reference region 316 may be another shape, such as a circle, hexagon, or other suitable shape.

  [0047] In the illustrated example, the exemplary AME server 102 uses a reference location associated with a registered panelist to respond to a device location included in a beacon received from a client device. Whether to associate the monitoring information to be registered with the registered panelist. For example, the AME server 102 in the illustrated example determines whether the device location data 314 and 315 included in the corresponding beacons 312 and 313 is within the reference area 316. If the device location is within the reference area associated with the registered panelist, the AME server 102 associates the monitoring information from the corresponding beacon with the corresponding registered panelist. For example, because the AME server 102 determines that the device location 315 is within the reference region 316 corresponding to that panelist, the monitoring information included in the beacon 313 can be associated with the panelist associated with the reference location data 308B. it can. In contrast, if the device location is not within the reference area associated with the registered panelist, the AME server 102 marks the corresponding monitoring information as census data. For example, since the device location data 314 is not in the reference area 316, the AME server 102 in the illustrated example marks the monitoring information contained in the beacon 312 as census data.

  [0048] FIG. 3A is a diagram of an example environment 340 in which the examples disclosed herein may be implemented to relate census measurement data to panel data. The example environment 340 of the illustrated example includes an example household 350 (eg, a house) located within the example garden 352, and an example household 360A, 360B located within the example garden 362 ( For example, double apartments. In the illustrated example of FIG. 3A, members of household 350 and members of household 360B agree that they are being monitored (eg, included in the panel), and for the household (eg, household 350 is the panelist's home). Panelists that provided demographic information either for individual members of the household (eg, household 350 includes panelists 1, 2, and 3). The member (s) of household 360A in the illustrated example does not agree to be a panelist, and therefore demographic information about those members is not known.

  [0049] In the illustrated example of FIG. 3A, an exemplary household 350 is associated with a reference location 354. Reference location 354 visits household 350 from a device that includes a positioning system adjacent to a meter in household 350 via a meter that includes a positioning system, such as a GPS enabled device (eg, exemplary meter 302 of FIG. 3). It can be collected by an engineer who uses the positioning system. In the illustrated example of FIG. 3A, exemplary household 350 is also associated with reference region 356. The example reference region 356 of FIG. 3A may include members of the household 350 requesting and / or accessing media therein (eg, via the example client device 106 of FIGS. 1-3), It is an approximation of the region of household 350. In the illustrated example, the reference region 356 is determined using the example radius 355.

  [0050] In a similar manner, the example household 360B of FIG. 3A is associated with a reference location 364, which is within the household 360B, for example, via an instrument that includes a positioning system (eg, a GPS enabled device). From a device that includes a positioning system adjacent to the instrument, such as by a technician using the positioning system that visited household 360B. In the illustrated example of FIG. 3A, exemplary household 360B is associated with reference region 366. Exemplary reference region 366 is an approximation of the region of household 360B in which members of household 360B may request and / or access media (eg, via exemplary client device 106). In the illustrated example, the reference region 366 is determined using the example radius 365.

  [0051] As described above, the area of the reference region may vary based on known information about the associated household. For example, the AME server 102 can change the radii 355, 365 used to determine the reference regions 356, 366 based on the household type. For example, since household 350 is known to be a house, exemplary AME server 102 can assume that household 350 is located in garden 352, and based on this conclusion, AME server 102 A radius 355 may be used in which the reference region 356 extends beyond the perimeter of the physical structure of the household 350 (eg, beyond a wall) without overlapping another household. Thus, when the AME server 102 receives a beacon that includes device location information located within the reference region 356, the AME server 102 associates corresponding monitoring information with demographic information associated with the household 350.

  [0052] In contrast, because household 360B is known to be a duplex apartment, exemplary AME server 102 uses this information to make household 360B a wall with another household (eg, household 360A). Can be judged as sharing. For some purposes, the AME server 102 uses a radius 365 that is smaller than the radius 355 and does not extend beyond the wall of the household 360B, thereby reducing the likelihood that the reference area 366 overlaps another household. As a result, the device position information located in the reference area 366 can be correctly considered to be due to the household 360B, and cannot be mistakenly assumed to be due to the neighborhood.

  [0053] Although the reference regions 356, 366 of FIG. 3A are determined using radii, many other methods of determining the reference region can be used. For example, two or more GPS coordinates can be used to calculate a reference area such as a rectangle, a hexagon, and the like.

  [0054] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary implementation of the AME server 102 of FIGS. The exemplary AME server 102 in the illustrated example includes an exemplary tag handler 110, an exemplary beacon handler 402, an exemplary beacon parser 404, an exemplary decoder 406, an exemplary tagged impression logger 408, Exemplary position handler 410, exemplary distance calculator 412, exemplary comparator 414, exemplary panel restorer 416, exemplary data store 418, exemplary data store 420, exemplary reporter 422 , And an exemplary time stamper 424. As described above, the AME server 102 includes an exemplary tag handler 110 to facilitate media tagging. For example, tag handler 110 may instruct media hosting server 104 to insert tag 206 (which may be a reference to an external tag) into media 204. For example, tag handler 110 may provide executable instructions (eg, tag 206, applet, etc.) to media hosting server 104 that are embedded in media 204. In some examples, tag handler 110 instructs media hosting server 104 to insert a reference to tag 206 into media 204, and the tag is hosted outside the media. In some such examples, when the client device 106 accesses the media 204, the client device 106 also sends a request for the tag 206 using the reference. In the illustrated example, when the tag handler 110 instructs the media hosting server 104 to insert a reference to the tag 206, the tag 206 can be hosted on the media hosting server 104 and / or the AME server 102.

  [0055] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes an exemplary beacon handler 402 to facilitate communication with a client device (eg, client device 106 of FIGS. 1-3). . For example, beacon handler 402 can receive a dummy request (eg, beacon) from client device 106 executing an executable instruction (eg, tag 206). In some examples, beacon handler 402 receives beacon 210 from browser 200 of FIG. In some examples, beacon handler 402 sends an acknowledgment to browser 200 in response to receiving beacon 210. In other examples, no response is made.

  [0056] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes an exemplary beacon parser 404 to extract location information contained in the beacon 210. For example, the beacon parser 404 can identify the location identifier 212 of FIG. In some examples, beacon parser 404 can identify a user agent that identifies browser 200 and / or client device 106. For example, the user agent may include a network address, media access control (MAC) address, telephone number, etc. associated with the client device 106. In some examples, the beacon parser 404 can identify a media identifier (eg, media identifier 214 (FIG. 2)) received within the media response 206 of FIG. 2 that identifies the media. In some examples, the beacon parser 404 can identify and / or set a cookie that allows identification of the next beacon from the same client device. In some examples, the beacon parser 404 may not be able to identify a location identifier within the beacon 210. For example, when a beacon 210 is sent from a client device that does not include a positioning system and / or a client device that does not access the positioning system, the beacon 210 does not have a location identifier.

  [0057] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes an exemplary decryptor 406 to decrypt information in the beacon 210. For example, information included in beacon 210 may be encrypted. For example, the executable tag 206 can cause the browser 200 to encrypt device location information and / or monitoring information before including the location identifier 212 in the beacon 210. In this way, personal data, such as accurate location data, that can identify where the user is accessing the media is protected. In some such examples, the decryptor 406 can be used to decrypt information contained in the beacon 210 before the beacon parser 404 parses the beacon 210.

  [0058] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 considers an exemplary tagged impression logger to consider (or record) the impression as media based on the monitoring information contained in the beacon 210. 408. For example, the tagged impression logger 408 can list corresponding media (eg, via one or more media identifiers) in the data structure. In some examples, the tagged impression logger 408 adds additional information at the end and / or first that it considers due to the media identified by exposure. For example, the tagged impression logger 408 may receive the media from which the media was received (eg, a vendor identifier, URL, etc.), the network address of the client device 106, and / or the identifier of the client device 106 (eg, an international mobile telephone device). Identification (IMEI) numbers, cookies, MAC addresses, etc.). In addition, the tagged impression logger 408 can add a time stamp from the exemplary time stamper 424 that indicates the date and / or time when the beacon 210 was received by the AME server 102. This time stamp can identify the media access time in addition to the time stamp applied at the client device.

  [0059] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes an exemplary location handler 410 to determine a reference location to compare with the device location extracted from the beacon 210. As described above, the reference location corresponds to the geographical location of the panelist's home. In the illustrated example, the reference location is stored in the data store 420 along with a panelist identifier associated with the panelist and / or additional panelist information. For example, panelist information may include demographic information (eg, gender, age group, race, income, education level, etc.) collected from the user when the user subscribes to or registers with the panel.

  [0060] The location handler 410 of the illustrated example of FIG. 4 uses a data structure (eg, a lookup table) stored in the example data store 420 to determine a reference location associated with a registered panelist. Identify. Registered panelists can be associated with one or more reference positions and / or reference areas (eg, house areas, work areas, villa areas, etc.). In some examples, the position handler 410 filters the reference position based on the extracted device position. For example, the position handler 410 analyzes the reference position stored in the data store 420 and identifies a reference position having the same (or nearly the same) longitude or latitude coordinates of the device position specified in the beacon.

  [0061] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes the device position extracted from the beacon by the beacon parser 404 and the one or more reference position (s) obtained from the position handler 410. An exemplary distance calculator 412 is included to calculate the distance between. For example, the distance calculator 412 can determine the distance between two locations using any distance calculation algorithm.

  [0062] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes an example comparator 414 to compare the distance calculated by the example distance calculator 412 to a threshold value. The example comparator 414 of the example of FIG. 4 may provide corresponding monitoring information with the panelist based on a comparison of whether a threshold is satisfied (eg, a calculated distance is within the threshold). Output a message indicating whether to associate.

  [0063] In some examples, the comparator 414 compares the extracted device position with a reference region based on the reference position. In some examples, reference region attributes (eg, size, geographic area, center, shape, etc.) are selected based on panelist information, so that different reference regions have different attributes. For example, if the first reference position corresponds to an apartment unit and the second reference position corresponds to a lunch-style house, the exemplary comparator 414 has a first smaller area than the reference area surrounding the second reference position. A reference area surrounding the reference position is determined to ensure that the first reference area does not extend into the third party living space. The example comparator 414 considers the media exposure to be from a corresponding panelist or determines if the device location is within the reference region to determine whether to label the exposure as census data (see FIG. 3A). Is within the radius described in the related description.

  [0064] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the AME server 102 includes an exemplary panel restore solicitor 416 to associate monitoring information extracted by the beacon parser 404 with a panelist. In the illustrated example, the comparator 414 indicates that the distance between the device position and the reference position is less than a threshold distance and / or that the device position is within a reference region that includes the corresponding reference position. When determined, exemplary panel restore solicitor 416 associates the monitoring information (eg, media exposure) included in beacon 210 with the registered panelist. For example, the panel restorer 416 uses the reference table to determine the panelist identifier corresponding to the reference position. However, other methods of determining registered panelists can be used as an addition or alternative. In some examples, the panel restorer 416 adds additional panelist information to the corresponding media impression recorded by the tagged impression logger 412. For example, in the example of FIG. 4, the panel restorer 416 adds demographic information to the tagged impression logger.

  [0065] In some examples, the panel restorer 416 may not be able to associate monitoring data with a registered panelist. For example, the comparator 414 may output a message indicating that the corresponding device position was not within the threshold distance of the reference position in the panel. In some other examples, the beacon parser 404 may not supply the device location. In some such examples, the panel restorer 416 considers this to belong to a non-panelist media impression and associates the monitoring information contained in the beacon 210 as census data. In the illustrated example, the panel restorer 416 adds a label indicating that the corresponding media impression recorded by the tagged impression logger 408 is census data.

  [0066] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the example data store 418 includes monitoring information received from the beacon parser 404, media impressions recorded by the tagged impression logger 408, and / or the panel restorer 416. The panelist identification information received from is stored.

  [0067] The example data store 420 of FIG. 4 may be implemented by any storage device and / or storage disk for storing data, such as, for example, flash memory, magnetic media, optical media, and the like. Further, the data stored in the data store 420 can be in any data format such as, for example, binary data, comma-delimited data, tab-delimited data, structured query language (SQL) structure, and the like. In the illustrated example, the data store 420 is shown as a single database, but the data store 420 may be implemented by any number and / or type (s) of database.

  [0068] In the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the reporter 422 generates a report based on the collected monitoring information. In some examples, the report is presented to the media provider (s) and / or other entities. The report may identify various aspects of media usage, such as how many impressions the media received and demographics associated with those impressions.

  [0069] The example time stamper 424 of FIG. 4 includes a clock and a calendar. The example time stamper 424 adds a period and date information to the end of the data in the impression item, including, for example, media impressions identified as census data by the panel restorer 416 (e.g., central A standard time (CST) 1:00 am to 1:01 am) and a date (eg, January 1, 2013) are associated with each generated tagged impression item from the tagged impression logger 408.

  [0070] Although an exemplary scheme for implementing the AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-3 is shown in FIG. 4, one or more of the elements, processes, and / or devices shown in FIG. Can be combined, split, reconfigured, omitted, removed, and / or implemented in any other manner. Further, exemplary media hosting server 104, exemplary client device 106, exemplary client device 107, exemplary tag handler 110, exemplary beacon handler 402, exemplary beacon parser 404, exemplary tagged Impression logger 408, exemplary position handler 410, exemplary distance calculator 412, exemplary comparator 414, exemplary panel restorer 416, exemplary data store 418, exemplary data store 420, exemplary The exemplary reporter 422, the exemplary time stamper 424, and / or more generally, the exemplary AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-3 may be hardware, software, firmware, and / or hardware, software. And / or firmware It can be implemented by any combination. Thus, for example, exemplary media hosting server 104, exemplary client device 106, exemplary client device 107, exemplary tag handler 110, exemplary beacon handler 402, exemplary beacon parser 404, exemplary Tagged impression logger 408, exemplary location handler 410, exemplary distance calculator 412, exemplary comparator 414, exemplary panel restorer 416, exemplary data store 418, exemplary data store 420 Any of the exemplary reporter 422, exemplary time stamper 424, and / or, more generally, exemplary AME server 102 may include one or more analog or digital circuit (s), Logic circuit, programmable processor (s), Application-specific integrated circuit (s) (ASIC (s)), programmable logic device (s) (PLD (s)), and / or field programmable logic device (s) (FPLD (s)) Can be implemented. When reading any of the device claims or system claims of this patent that covers purely software and / or firmware implementations, the exemplary media hosting server 104, exemplary client device 106, exemplary client device 107, exemplary tag handler 110, exemplary beacon handler 402, exemplary beacon parser 404, exemplary tagged impression logger 408, exemplary location handler 410, exemplary distance calculator 412, exemplary At least one of the comparator 414, the example panel restore solicitor 416, the example data store 418, the example data store 420, the example reporter 422, and / or the example time stamper 424 may include: Software and / or software Memory for storing Muwea, digital versatile disc (DVD), compact disc (CD), a like Blu-ray disc, to include a tangible computer readable storage device or storage disk, are clearly defined by the specification. Additionally, the exemplary AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-3 may include one or more elements, processes, and / or in addition to or instead of the elements, processes, and / or devices illustrated in FIG. And / or may include devices and / or may include two or more of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes, and devices.

  [0071] FIG. 5 is an exemplary data table 500 that stores data representing tagged media impressions that can be collected by the exemplary AME server 102 of FIGS. In the illustrated example of FIG. 5, the data table 500 is the requested website 502, the device location 504, the time stamp 506 from the requesting client device, and the impression is panel data or census data. A possible panel data flag 508 is identified. In the illustrated example, the AME server 102 extracts the device position from the location identifier 212 of the beacon 210 when the location identifier is present. For example, impression item 510 requested a website (Host1.com) at 9:15 am on November 10, 2013 from a device location having GPS coordinates (41.87989, -87.633158). It shows that. Further, since the impression item 510 includes the device position, whether the device position satisfies a threshold (eg, the calculated distance between the device position and the reference position is within the threshold), and / or Or, depending on whether the device position is within the reference area, the impression item 510 is flagged as possible panel data. In contrast, in impression item 512, the user who accessed the website (Host2.com) on November 10, 2013 at 9:45:05 AM, the device location for the client device when the client device supplied the beacon. The client device that did not supply information was accessed. As a result, impression item 512 is flagged as census data (eg, not possible panel data). In some examples, the data table 500 may include device identifiers (eg, client device phone numbers, client device media access control (MAC) addresses, client device serial numbers, etc.), vendor identifiers (eg, website 502 It may include additional information such as registered individuals / entities), browser identifiers, control action identifiers (eg, control actions such as play, stop, pause, etc. that activate a media request), cookies, and the like.

  [0072] FIG. 6 is an example data table 600 that can be stored by the example AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-4 to facilitate associating monitoring information with panelist information. In the illustrated example of FIG. 6, data table 600 associates panelist identifier 602 with reference type 603 (eg, house, apartment, office building, etc.) and reference position 604. For example, in row 616, the panelist identifier (10001) is associated with the reference position provided by the GPS coordinates (41.87989, -87.633158). Further, in row 616, reference position 604 corresponds to a duplex apartment. As described above, the reference position 604 can be, for example, a technician who has visited the panelist's home, a measurement device included in the panelist's home, and / or measurement hardware (e.g., a portable instrument) owned by the panelist or It can be obtained by metrology software (eg, an on-device instrument included in the monitored device). In addition, the exemplary data table 600 includes a reference area 605 corresponding to the reference type 603. For example, the radius may vary based on whether the reference type is a house, apartment, gym, or the like. Further, exemplary data table 600 includes demographic information associated with registered panelists. For example, the data table 600 of FIG. 6 includes a gender identifier 606, an age range 608, a residence city 610, and a dating situation 612 for panelists included in the data table 600. Thus, for example, in line 620, a registered panelist having a panelist identifier (10003) is associated with the reference location provided by the GPS coordinates (39.739166, -104.984720), and for ages 18 and 34 A woman, living and living in Denver, Colorado. In some examples, the panelist is associated with more than one reference position. In some such examples, different reference locations may correspond to known locations where the panelist has accessed the media. For example, in row 620, reference location 604 is associated with an apartment in which the panelist can live, in row 622, reference location 604 is associated with a gym that the panelist frequently attends, and in row 624, reference location 604 is owned by the panelist. Associated with the villa to do. In this way, associating census data with panel data is not limited to a single location. Rather, census data collected at different locations can be related to the same panel data. In some examples, the data table 600 includes additional information associated with the reference location, such as the type of residence (eg, apartment unit, house, etc.), whether the measurement device is located near the exterior wall, etc. There is. In some examples, the data table 600 may include more demographic information associated with registered panelists, such as race, income, education level completed, occupation, etc., for example. By using the geographical location and panelist log for the tagged media system, the panelist's user privacy is protected. For example, personal identification information is not revealed while sending information (eg, monitoring information) to AME server 102 and / or client device 106. Further, in some examples, the location identifier, monitoring information, and / or beacon 210 can be encrypted to increase privacy.

  [0073] FIG. 7 shows an exemplary data table 700 representing the associated media impressions collected by the AME server 102 of FIGS. In the illustrated example of FIG. 7, data table 700 is a collection table that includes tagged media impressions from exemplary data table 500 and panelist information from exemplary data table 600. For example, row 720 in FIG. 7 corresponds to row 510 in FIG. In the illustrated example, the example data table 700 shows whether impressions are considered census data or panelist data (eg, monitoring information corresponds to panelist behavior or non-panelist behavior). 702, panellist identifier 704 (if available), requested website 706, device location 708, and media request time stamp 710. The example data table 700 also identifies demographic information (eg, residential city 712) retrieved from the example data table 600.

  [0074] The panelist identifier column 704 in the illustrated example of FIG. 7 corresponds to identifiers for registered panelists. For example, when the AME server 102 determines that the monitoring information extracted from the beacon can be related to a registered panelist, the AME server 102 uses the data table 600 of FIG. It can be added to the corresponding impression item in table 700. In some examples, when a panelist is identified, the AME server 102 can add additional demographic information from the data table 600 to the impression item. For example, the AME server 102 can add the panelist's gender, age range, dating situation, etc. to the corresponding impression items in the data table 700.

  [0075] In the illustrated example of FIG. 7, identifying 702 whether exposure was monitored via census data or via panelist data may be beneficial for analytical purposes. For some purposes, census data may include information relating to panelists and non-panelists.

  [0076] The panelist identifier 704 in the illustrated example of FIG. 7 identifies the panelist who requested the media. The panelist identifier 704 is used in the illustrated example, but any that can be used to identify the panelist, such as a mobile device identifier (eg, MAC address), panelist name, telephone number, cookie, etc. Other information can be used in addition or as an alternative. Although the requested website 706 is used in the illustrated example, any additional or alternative, eg, a vendor identifier, a tag encoded in the media 204, etc., to identify the requested media Information can be used.

  [0077] The timestamp row 710 in the illustrated example of FIG. 7 represents the date and / or time when information associated with the media (eg, website) was requested. However, the time stamp row 710 may alternatively represent the time at which the requested media was rendered (eg, displayed, presented, etc.) by the client device 106. Storing time stamps (eg, date and / or time) is more likely that a user will request media from a news website (eg, www.cnn.com) (eg, weekends, weekdays, etc.) Analysis of when a user requested a particular media (to determine issues such as whether or not).

  [0078] Flow charts representing exemplary machine readable instructions for implementing the AME server 102 of FIGS. 1-4 are shown in FIGS. 8, 9, 11, and 12. FIG. In this example, the machine readable instructions include a program for execution by a processor, such as processor 1312 shown in exemplary processor platform 1300 described below in connection with FIG. The program may be implemented in software stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, flexible disk, hard drive, digital versatile disk (DVD), Blu-ray disk, or memory associated with the processor 1312. However, the entire program and / or portions thereof may alternatively be executed by a device other than processor 1312 and / or implemented in firmware or dedicated hardware. Furthermore, although exemplary programs are described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 8, 9, 11, and 12, many other ways of implementing the exemplary AME server 102 are alternatives. May be used as For example, the execution order of blocks may be changed and / or some of the described blocks may be changed, removed, or combined.

  [0079] As described above, the exemplary processes of FIGS. 8, 9, 11, and / or 12 include hard disk drive, flash memory, read only memory (ROM), compact disk (CD), digital Applications Disc (DVD), cache, random access memory (RAM), and / or for any duration (eg, extended duration, permanently, for short instances, during temporary buffering, and Coded instructions (eg, computer readable instructions and / or machine readable instructions) stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium, such as any other storage device or storage disk on which information is stored (and / or during information caching) Can be implemented using: The term tangible computer readable storage medium as used herein includes any type of computer readable storage device and / or storage disk and is clearly defined to exclude transmission signals and transmission media. As used herein, “tangible computer readable storage medium” and “tangible machine readable storage medium” are used interchangeably. Additionally, or alternatively, the exemplary processes of FIGS. 8, 9, 11, and / or 12 include hard disk drive, flash memory, read only memory, compact disk, digital versatile disk, cache, random access memory, And / or any stored information for any duration (eg, extended duration, permanently, during short instances, during temporary buffering, and / or during caching of information) Using coded instructions (eg, computer readable instructions and / or machine readable instructions) stored on non-transitory computer-readable storage media and / or non-transitory machine-readable media, such as other storage devices or storage disks Can be implemented. The term non-transitory computer readable storage medium as used herein includes any type of computer readable storage device and / or storage disk and is specifically defined to exclude transmission signals and exclude transmission media. . As used herein, when the phrase “at least” is used as a conversion term in the preamble of a claim, it is open-ended as well as the term “including” is open-ended.

  [0080] The example program of FIG. 8 begins recording tagged impressions with the example AME server 102 (FIGS. 1-4). The example program of FIG. 8 is when the AME server 102 receives a beacon 210 from the client device 106 in response to a tag 206 (eg, an executable instruction) included in the media 204 being executed by the client device. Starting at block 802. For example, beacon handler 402 (FIG. 4) can receive beacon 210. In some examples, the beacon handler 402 sends an acknowledgment message to the device that sent the beacon in response to receiving the beacon 210. In another example, no response is made, but the data contained in the beacon is recorded.

  [0081] At block 804, the beacon parser 404 determines whether the monitoring information (eg, location identifier 212, media identifier 214, time stamp 216, cookie, etc.) included in the beacon 210 is encrypted. For example, the location identifier 212 included in the beacon 210 can be encrypted using an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm to protect user privacy. If, at block 804, the beacon parser 404 determines that the monitoring information is encrypted, at block 806, the decryptor 406 decrypts the monitoring information. For example, the decryptor 406 can decrypt the monitoring information using an AES algorithm.

  [0082] If the beacon parser 404 determines that the monitoring information is not encrypted at block 804, or after the decryptor 406 decrypts the monitoring information at block 806, control proceeds to block 808 where the beacon The parser 404 analyzes the monitoring information included in the beacon 210 for the position identifier 212. If the beacon parser 404 finds the location identifier 212 at block 810, the beacon parser 404 extracts the device location included in the location identifier 212 at block 812. The device location can be used to determine whether to associate monitoring information with the panelist.

  [0083] If the beacon parser 404 did not find the location identifier 212 at block 810, or after the beacon parser 404 extracted the device location from the location identifier 212 at block 812, control proceeds to block 814 where the tag The attached impression logger 408 stores a record of the monitoring information supplied by the beacon 210. For example, the beacon parser 404 can extract a requested media identifier (eg, URL address), vendor identifier, etc. that may be included in the beacon 210. At block 815, the tagged impression logger 408 flags the record as possible panel data or census data. For example, if the beacon parser 404 extracts the device position from the position identifier 212, the tagged impression logger 408 flags the record as possible panel data. Otherwise, if the beacon parser 404 does not find the location identifier 212, the tagged impression logger 408 flags the record as census data.

  [0084] At block 816, the time stamper 424 associates a time period (eg, Central Standard Time (CST) 1:00 am to 1:01 am CST) and a date (eg, January 1, 2013) with a tagged media impression. . For example, the time stamper 424 can add period and date information to the end of impression items in the data store 420 and / or provide period and date information to the data store 418.

  [0085] At block 818, the AME server 102 determines whether to continue processing the beacon. In block 818, if the AME server 102 determines to continue processing the beacon (eg, the beacon handler 402 continues to receive the beacon as a result of the tag included in the media response), in the tag 206 included in the media 204 In response to executing the executable instruction, control returns to block 802 to receive another beacon 210 from the client device 106. Otherwise, at block 818, if the AME server 102 decides to finish processing the beacon (eg, due to a server shutdown event, etc.), the example process 800 of FIG. 8 ends.

  [0086] The example program 900 of FIG. 9 determines whether to associate a tagged media impression with a registered panelist and, accordingly, the tagged media impression as either census data or panel data. Mark. The example program of FIG. 9 begins at block 902 where reporter 422 prepares the tagged media impression log to be combined with panelist information. For example, the reporter 422 identifies a media impression in the tagged media impression log that includes the device location based on whether the tagged media impression was flagged as census data or flagged as possible panel data. Can do. Similarly, at block 904, the reporter 422 prepares a panelist log for combination with the tagged media impression log. For example, the reporter 422 can utilize the data table 600 to associate tagged media impressions with panelist identifiers.

  [0087] At block 906, the location handler 410 identifies a reference location associated with the registered panelist and compares it to the device location information contained in the tagged media impression log. For example, the position handler 410 analyzes the reference position stored in the data table 600 in the data store 420 and identifies a reference position having the same (or nearly the same) longitude or latitude coordinates as the device position information.

  [0088] At block 908, the distance calculator 412 calculates the distance between the reference position and the device position. If, at block 910, the comparator 414 determines that the device position is within the reference area associated with the reference position, at block 912, the panel restorer 416 marks the corresponding impression as panel data. At block 914, the panel restorer 416 uses the data table 600 to associate the impression with the panelist identifier. Control then proceeds to block 920 to determine whether to continue associating the impression with the panel data.

  [0089] Returning to block 910, if the comparator 414 determines that the device position is not within the reference region associated with the reference position, at block 916, the AME server 102 determines whether it is at the end of the panelist log. Determine. For example, the position handler 410 determines whether there are additional reference positions in the data table 600 to test against device position information. If at block 916 the position handler 410 determines that it is not at the end of the reference position to test (eg, there are more reference positions in the data table 600), control returns to block 908 to return another reference position. Calculate the distance to the device position. Otherwise, if at block 916 the position handler 410 determines that it is at the end of the panelist log (eg, there are no more reference positions to test against the device position information), at block 918 the panelist Associator 416 marks the corresponding impression as census data. Control then proceeds to block 920 to determine whether to continue associating the impression with the panel data.

  [0090] At block 920, the AME server 102 determines whether to continue associating the impression with the panelist. If at block 920, the AME server 102 decides to continue to associate the impression with the panel data (eg, including additional device locations that the tagged media impression log tests), control returns to block 906, Identify the reference position associated with the panel data. Otherwise, at block 920, if the AME server 102 decides to finish associating the impression with the panel data (eg, there are no more tagged media impressions to check), at block 922, the reporter 422 The report is generated and the process 900 of FIG. 9 ends.

  [0091] FIG. 10 is an example applet 1000 that includes pseudocode that may be executed to generate a beacon in response to accessing tagged media at a client device. For example, applet 1000 can be embedded in media 204. In the illustrated example of FIG. 10, applet 1000 includes an exemplary monitoring information retrieval section 1002 and an exemplary beacon transmission section 1004. In the illustrated example, the monitoring information search section 1002 defines values for monitoring information (eg, location identifier 212, media identifier 214, time stamp 216) included in the beacon 210. For example, the monitoring information search section 1002 includes an example location identifier definition block 1006, an example media identifier definition line 1008, and an example timestamp definition line 1010. The example location identifier definition block 1006 of FIG. 10 determines whether the client device 106 has accessed the location application programming interface (API) and defines a value for the location identifier 212 accordingly. For example, when the client device 106 accesses the location API, the line 1006A retrieves device location information via the location API and stores the value for the location identifier 212. Otherwise, if the client device 106 did not access the location API, the line 1006B shows a value indicating that no device location is provided (eg, a null or empty value, “false”, “N / A”, “ 0 "). In the illustrated example, media identifier definition line 1008 retrieves media identification information from media 204 and stores a value for location identifier 214. In the illustrated example, the timestamp definition line 1010 retrieves date and time information for the media request and stores a value for the timestamp 216.

  [0092] In the illustrated example of FIG. 10, the example applet 1000 includes an example beacon transmission section 1004 to generate a beacon 210, for example, to transmit the beacon 210 to the AME server 102. For example, exemplary beacon generation line 1012 defines beacon 210 using location identifier 212, media identifier 214, and time stamp 216. In the exemplary beacon transmission line 1014, the applet 1000 causes the client device 106 to transmit a beacon 210, for example, to the AME server 102. In some examples, applet 1000 records beacon 210 and later transmits one or more beacons 210. For example, applet 1000 causes client device 106 to transmit recorded beacons 210 to AME server 102 periodically (eg, every 24 hours).

  [0093] The example program 1100 of FIG. 11 illustrates an example method that may be performed by a computing device of an audience measurement entity to collect monitoring information from tagged media. The example program of FIG. 11 begins at block 1102 when the tag handler 110 instructs the example media hosting server 104 to insert a reference to an executable tag in the media 204. For example, tag handler 110 may cause media hosting server 104 to include a dummy image in media 204 that media hosting server 104 desires to monitor. At block 1104, the tag handler 110 receives a request for an executable tag from the client device 106. For example, the media hosting server 104 can respond to a request for media from the client device 106 with the media 204 that includes the reference. When the client device 106 presents the media 204, the tag handler 110 receives a client device request for an executable tag in response to the reference. In some implementations, block 1104 may not be included. For example, the tag handler 110 can supply the tag 206 with the reference to the media hosting server 104 so that when the client device 106 presents the media 204, the media hosting server 104 can execute in response to performing the reference. Receive client device requests for tags. In some other implementations, the tag handler 110 can supply the tag 206 and instruct the media hosting server 104 to embed the tag 206 in the corresponding media 204. Thus, when the client device 106 presents the media 204, no request for an executable tag is made by the client device 106. Rather, the client device 106 executes a tag 206 that already exists in the media. At block 1106, the tag handler 110 sends an executable tag to the client device 106. For example, the tag handler 110 can retrieve the executable tag 206 from the data store 420 and communicate the executable tag 206 to the client device 106. Exemplary executable tag 206 is described in further detail below in connection with FIG.

  [0094] At block 1108, the AME server 102 receives a beacon 210 from the client device 106. For example, the client device 106 generates a beacon 210 in response to executing the executable tag 206 and transmits the beacon 210 to the AME server 102. The exemplary process of FIG. 11 then ends.

  [0095] The example program 1200 of FIG. 12 is configured to generate an example beacon in response to being executed due to access to the tagged media 204. The operation was shown. Accordingly, the example program of FIG. 12 can be used to implement the executable tag 206. The example program of FIG. 12 begins at block 1202 when the executable tag 206 causes the client device 106 to retrieve media identification information from the media 204. For example, the media hosting server 104 may encode media identification information (eg, watermarks, signatures, metadata, etc.) in the media 204 that the client device 106 decrypts when accessing the media 204. At block 1204, the executable tag 206 causes the client device 106 to request access to the location application programming interface (API) of the client device 106. For example, the client device 106 can request permission from the user to access the location API. If access to the location API is allowed at block 1206, at block 1208, the client device 106 retrieves device location information for the client device via the location API. In some examples, once authentication is granted, no future request is required to access the location API.

  [0096] If at block 1206 access to the location API is not allowed (eg, the user rejects the request), or at block 1208, after the client device 106 has retrieved the device location information, executable at block 1210 Tag 206 causes client device 106 to retrieve date and time information about the media request. For example, the client device 106 may include a calendar and clock that the client device 106 accesses to retrieve date and time information. At block 1212, executable tag 206 causes client device 106 to generate beacon 210. For example, the beacon 210 generates a location identifier 212 to identify device location information, a media identifier 214 to identify media identification information, and a timestamp 216 to identify date and time information. The location identifier 212, media identifier 214, and time stamp 216 can be generated and packaged in the beacon 210. At block 1214, executable tag 206 causes client device 106 to send beacon 210 to AME server 102. The example process of FIG. 12 then ends.

  [0097] FIG. 13 illustrates an example capable of executing the instructions of FIGS. 8, 9, 11, and / or 12 to implement the exemplary AME server 102 of FIGS. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary processor platform 1300. FIG. The processor platform 1300 includes, for example, a server, a personal computer, a mobile device (for example, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet such as iPAD (registered trademark)), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a DVD player, a CD player, and digital video. It can be a recorder, a Blu-ray player, a game console, a personal video recorder, a set top box, or any other type of computing device.

  [0098] The processor platform 1300 of the illustrated example includes a processor 1312. The processor 1312 in the illustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor 1312 can be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors, or controllers from any desired group or manufacturer.

  [0099] The processor 1312 in the illustrated example includes a local memory 1313 (eg, a cache). The processor 1312 in the illustrated example communicates with a main memory including a volatile memory 1314 and a non-volatile memory 1316 via a bus 1318. Volatile memory 1314 may be implemented by synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), RAMBUS dynamic random access memory (RDRAM), and / or any other type of random access memory device. Can do. Non-volatile memory 1316 may be implemented by flash memory and / or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the main memories 1314 and 1316 is controlled by a memory controller.

  [0100] The processor platform 1300 of the illustrated example also includes an interface circuit 1320. Interface circuit 1320 may be implemented by any type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB), and / or a PCI express interface.

  [0101] In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1322 are connected to the interface circuit 1320. Input device (s) 1322 allows a user to enter data and commands into processor 1312. The input device (s) can be implemented, for example, by an audio sensor, microphone, camera (still or video), keyboard, button, mouse, touch screen, trackpad, trackball, ISOPOINT and / or voice recognition system. .

  [0102] One or more output devices 1324 are also connected to the interface circuit 1320 of the illustrated example. The output device 1324 can be, for example, by a display device (eg, light emitting diode (LED), organic light emitting diode (OLED), liquid crystal display, cathode ray tube display (CRT), touch screen, haptic output device, printer, and / or speaker). Can be implemented. Accordingly, the interface circuit 1320 in the illustrated example typically includes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip, or a graphics driver processor.

  [0103] The interface circuit 1320 of the illustrated example is also connected to an external device (eg, In order to facilitate the exchange of data with any type of computing device), it includes communication devices such as transmitters, receivers, transceivers, modems, and / or network interface cards.

  [0104] The processor platform 1300 of the illustrated example also includes one or more mass storage devices 1328 for storing software and / or data. Examples of such mass storage devices 1328 include flexible disk drives, hard drive disks, compact disk drives, Blu-ray disk drives, RAID systems, and digital versatile disk (DVD) drives.

  [0105] The coded instructions 1332 of FIGS. 8, 9, 11, and / or 12 may be removable from a mass storage device 1328, a volatile memory 1314, a non-volatile memory 1316, and / or a removable tangible such as a CD or DVD. It can be stored on a computer readable storage medium.

  [0106] From the foregoing, an exemplary method for collecting monitoring information at the census level while allowing census level monitoring information to be associated with panelist data and protecting panelist privacy and panelist anonymity. It will be appreciated that an apparatus, product, and product have been disclosed.

  [0107] Although several exemplary methods, apparatus, and products have been disclosed herein, the scope of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, devices and products that fall within the scope of the claims of this patent.

Claims (17)

Instructing a media provider to embed a tag in the media via a monitoring entity's first computing device, when the media is accessed by a device, the tag accesses the media A message sent by the device to the monitoring entity, the message identifying the geographical location of the device; and
Accessing the message on a second computing device of the monitoring entity;
Identifying a panelist identifier by the second computing device of the monitoring entity based on the geographic location of the device;
Associating media identification information included in the message with panelist data associated with the panelist identifier;
Including a method.   The method of claim 1, wherein the media identification information corresponds to media accessed by the device at the geographic location.   The method of claim 1, wherein the tag is a reference to an executable monitoring instruction hosted outside the media. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographical location is determined via a global positioning system , cellular data, or Wi-Fi data .   The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the message is encrypted. Identifying a panelist identifier based on the geographical location of the device comprises:
Determining a reference region associated with the panelist identifier;
Determining whether the geographic location is within the reference area;
Further including
Associating the media identification information with the panelist data comprises:
In response to determining that the geographic location is within the reference region, sub-associating the media identification information with the panelist data;
including,
The method of claim 1. A tag handler that instructs a media provider to embed a tag in the media, and when the media is accessed by a device, the tag does not supply or distribute the media to the device that accesses the media A tag handler for sending a message to the body, wherein the message identifies a geographical location of the device;
A beacon handler accessing the message;
A panel restore sociator that identifies a panelist identifier based on the geographical location of the device, wherein the panel restore sociator associates media identification information conveyed by the message with panelist data associated with the panelist identifier. When,
A system comprising: The system of claim 7 , wherein the media identification information corresponds to media accessed by the device at the geographic location. A beacon parser that extracts the geographical location of the device from the message;
The system of claim 7 , further comprising: A decryptor for decrypting the message,
The system of claim 7 , further comprising: The system of claim 7 , wherein the geographical location of the device is determined via a global positioning system , cellular data, or Wi-Fi data . A position handler for identifying a reference position associated with the panelist identifier;
A comparator for determining a reference area based on the reference position, wherein the comparator determines whether the geographical position of the device is within the reference area;
Further comprising
If the output of the comparator indicates that the geographic location of the device is within the reference area, the panel restorer marks the corresponding monitoring information as panel data.
The system according to claim 7 . At least the processor
Instructing a media provider to embed a tag in the media, when the media is accessed by a device, the tag causes the device accessing the media to send a message to a monitoring entity; The message identifying the geographical location of the device;
Identifying a panelist identifier based on the geographical location of the device;
Associating media identification information included in the message with panelist data associated with the panelist identifier;
A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon an instruction for executing the command. The instructions are sent to the processor,
Extracting the geographical location of the device from the message;
The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 13 , further executing: The instructions are sent to the processor,
Determining that a portion of the message is encrypted;
Decrypting the message;
The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 13 , further executing: 14. The computer readable recording medium of claim 13 , wherein the geographical location of the device is determined via a global positioning system , cellular data, or Wi-Fi data . The instructions are sent to the processor,
Identifying a reference location associated with the panelist identifier;
Determining a reference region based on the reference position;
Determining whether the geographical location of the device is within the reference area;
Is executed further,
Associating the media identification information with the panelist data comprises:
Associating the media identification information with the panelist data in response to determining that the geographical location of the device is within the reference region;
The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 13 .